This year’s online Festival of Politics hosted by The Scottish Parliament is all about the climate emergency.
The festival runs from 20 to 24 October 2021 and every event is free to attend. With COP26 taking place in Glasgow in November, the climate emergency is an obvious but compelling topic.
There will be sessions to bring together global thinkers, writers, academics and experts all working out how to make a difference, and empower those attending with the knowledge of how they can do that too.
The programme has been created with Scotland’s Futures Forum with inspiration from the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Speaking as the Festival was launched, the Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone MSP, said: “The climate emergency, poverty, inequality and a global pandemic have created an unprecedented set of challenges for our society. It is the job of this Parliament to provide a platform to debate some of the most pertinent issues for our country and globally, and I am delighted to announce this programme today, which does just that.
“This year’s Festival is packed with brilliant panellists and thought-provoking events, and I feel certain festivalgoers will leave better informed, challenged and inspired. I have no doubt that these thought-provoking discussions will promote the understanding that is key to change.”
Events include:
- Is the North to blame for the climate crisis? Asking should the North pay reparations to the climate vulnerable countries for decades of the developed world’s over-consumption? In partnership with the Royal Scottish Geographical Society;
- Greenwashing – can planet and profit work together? which will cover how consumers can see through the practice of Greenwashing
- Fast Fashion in partnership with Zero Waste Scotland, which will debate how fashion is one of the world’s largest polluters and why it’s time to make radical changes in our clothing manufacturing and buying habits
- Violence against women in partnership with Scottish Women’s Aid, looking at why the responsibility for dealing with this public health issue is still seemingly up to women
- Black history month – political representation in partnership with the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights, which will debate progress in relation to the election of 6 ethnic minority MSPs, in a political world that needs to be representative of a Scotland with a 4% ethnic minority population.
You can find out more and book now on the website: www.festivalofpolitics.scot
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
